WHICH BIN TIPS
Christmas - Naughty or Nice
Use Vin’s handy lists for wanted (‘nice’) and unwanted (‘naughty’) bin choices over the festive season:
Nice
Putting food scraps in the green bin – create compost, not landfill
Food scraps including citrus, onion, dairy, meat, bones, fish, fruit and vegetable scraps can all be composted via your green kerbside bin. Wrap seafood and meat scraps in newspaper or a compostable green bag (the ones you use in your kitchen caddy, not a plastic bag) and put them in the freezer until bin day.
Putting Christmas wrapping paper, cards and cardboard packaging in the yellow bin
Wrapping paper (paper only, not cellophane), cards and cardboard packaging can all be recycled via your yellow kerbside bin. Cellophane wrap can be dropped at participating supermarkets via the REDcycle system.
MORE ABOUT PACKAGING & YELLOW BIN
Choose reusable dinnerware and cutlery rather than disposable plastic items that are destined for landfill.
If you do use disposable items, you can find local suppliers and brands who offer compostable plastic-free alternatives here:
MORE ABOUT FRIENDLY CUTLERY & DINNERWARE
Naughty
Putting soft plastics in the yellow bin.
Separate these and drop them at participating supermarkets via the REDcycle system.
Putting batteries in the yellow bin.
They’re not recyclable via kerbside systems, but can be recycled at Aldistores, and some council civic centre or libraries.
Householders can look for participating Aldi stores for free drop off points for battery recycling (any brand of AA, AAA, C, D and 9V batteries, both rechargeable and single use). Please use the links below to locate your nearest point, and phone ahead to make sure there is a collection service offered first.
Household Hazardous Waste facilities also accept batteries - find your nearest one here:
MORE ABOUT HAZARDOUS WASTE FACILITIES
Many councils and libraries also offer a drop off service - please call your council direct to check if they are participating, and where locations are.
For a kerbside choice, AA, AAA C and D batteries can only go in the red (or blue) landfill bin, never in the yellow or green bins.Rechargeable batteries must never be placed in any kerbside bin and need to be taken to a recycling drop-off point or a household hazardous waste facility.
Putting polystyrene packaging in the yellow bin.
Polystyrene foam packaging, trays and cups – cannot be recycled in the yellow recycling bin. Make your recycle bin a ‘no foam zone.’
Clean, white, rigid polystyrene packaging foam from electrical goods, furniture, homewares and toys can be recycled through the following drop-off options:
- Electronics Recycling Australia, 301 Grand Junction Road Ottoway (weekdays 8am-4pm only)
- NAWMA‘s Resource Recovery Centre, (any day of the week), gate 3 Bellchambers Road, Edinburgh North.
- Coolfoam, 25 Barfield Crescent, Edinburgh North (weekdays 8am-3pm only)
- Return it to the store where you purchased the goods from eg. Harvey Norman, Good Guys, Bunnings etc and ask them to recycle the packaging. They are likely to have a compactor for the polystyrene at their premises and will then send this off for recycling as it is much cheaper to recycle it than pay for a landfill skip for it. It also encourages these retailers to put pressure back on their suppliers to choose more sustainable and easily recyclable packaging such as moulded cardboard instead.
If this isn’t possible for you, then please place it in the general waste to landfill bin.
Note: to prevent polystyrene from becoming lodged and stuck inside the bin, blocking materials from being emptied, please ensure that the polystyrene is placed inside of a plastic bag and broken up into small pieces. Make sure the bag is tied at the top to prevent pieces from falling out and expel any air inside of the bag before sealing it.
For more tips on reducing waste at Christmas CLICK HERE